Makeover Tips for Susan Boyle | 04/28/2009 4:00 pm

Susan Boyle: 10 Tips for Taking Off 20 Years, by a Top Beauty Editor

Let’s be honest: At 47, Susan Boyle looks 67. Charla Krupp suggests ten ways she can take 20 years off.

By Charla Krupp

A start ...

The Sun

Editor’s note: Charla Krupp wrote the essential 2008 bestseller How Not to Look Old, which is full of great tips and complete with more than 150 recommended new products. It will be published in an updated paperback on May 1. Click here to visit Charla Krupp’s website.

I am obsessed with Susan Boyle. I could watch her sing "I Dreamed a Dream" on YouTube nonstop. If she were a thin, gorgeous, Hollywood blonde, would she have the world’s attention? I think not. Part of her charm is the way she looks. What a big mistake it would be for her to undergo an extreme makeover at this point. She would lose so much of her street cred. Susan, to borrow a phrase from Billy Joel, "Don’t go changing to try to please me." Your look goes so against type that it could only be called brilliant.

But let’s be honest. At 47, Susan looks 67. Should she ever decide not to be in show business (or an unemployed church volunteer), she needs to look more current to get a job in the real world where lookism rules. Here’s what she could do to take 20 years off:

1. Keep the brows shaped. And, keep them close to your hair color — not gray.

2. Color your hair. A little lighter, and add some softening highlights around the face.

3. Go to a dermatologist. A ruddy complexion could mean rosacea, which is easily treatable with medication.

4. Buy a creamy, liquid foundation to even out the skin tone. Stay away from powders. ("Powder is the enemy of the older woman," Diane Sawyer once said on "Oprah.")

5. Only wear light-pink lipstick. Dark reds or wines are aging.

6. Longer skirts look dowdy. Shorten yours to the knee.

7. Wear higher heels! Height always helps.

8. Lose ten pounds fast by slipping on a high-waisted shapewear bike short.

9. Get a new bra. You really want to keep the girls up.

10. Wear more fitted clothes. Your shape is hidden behind those baggy dresses, tops and skirts.

For more beauty tips from Charla Krupp:

18 Ways to Not Look Old in the Recession

25 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

I love all those ideas! I will be 41 in a few months and I agree with all 10 tips! No one ever thinks im even 40 yet! I wear the pink lipstick, high heels etc..I think as you age you should embrace being a female!

By michele T on 04/28/2009 4:09 pm

e-mail alert

Great tips, Charla, and brilliant to link them to a current news story. It’s fascinating to me how many hearts Susan Boyle has captured. I’m glad you didn’t suggest she do an extreme makeover. It would change everything, I think.

Thanks.

susangabriel.com

By Susan Gabriel on 04/28/2009 4:15 pm

e-mail alert

This is easy, don’t even have to read the article, basically… just start out at 47 looking like you’re over 60. Then get a dye job, eyebrow wax and a cute jacket and voila!… you’ve take 20 years off!

By DeBúrca obj on 04/28/2009 4:28 pm

e-mail alert

What’s with the pink lipstick? I am a brown haired, brown eyed person with a fairly olive complexion and pink didn’t look good on me when I was young and doesn’t now. Not that I’d wear a dark color, but pink?

By DeBúrca obj on 04/28/2009 4:31 pm

e-mail alert

Corals and peaches would be your best bets.

By Green Tears on 04/28/2009 7:12 pm

e-mail alert

Hi DeBurca,

Whenever I hear "pink" lipstick, I think of that cotton candy color. I don’t now why, but I do.

I have the same hair, eyes and skin tone (mine is a golden/olive skin tone). Anyway, I can’t wear "pink" either.

IF you are interested, here is a link to my makeup guru, Bobbi Brown. I love her because she liked to help women look their "natural" best, not like they are ready for the runway. Once a year I go into a dept. store just to make sure my concealer is still concealing, and to get a new lip color.

She has come out with what I think is a great tool: Lip System. It’s a color wheel. (They gave me three. One to keep in my handbag, and two to mail to friends so they can match lipsticks at a store of their choice.) You identify your natural lip shade "match" on her color wheel. In the dept. store, they hold the plastic wheel up to your lips, and turn it and turn it, until they have the best color match. Here on this link you can click on the color choices (mine is Brownie Pink). It lists a neutral, bright and deep shade, in whatever application you want. I get the creamy lip color, as I’m 50+ now, blah, blah, blah. You might look wonderful in her Italian Rose for day, or her Plum, or Raisin Berry, or Ruby. Oh, here I go. Anyway, here is the link in case you are interested.

http://www.bobbibrown.co.uk/whatsnew/wn_lipsystem.tmpl?ngextredir=1

By N P on 04/28/2009 11:27 pm

e-mail alert

Thanks, NP — I also wear Brownie Pink. =) But, I am blonde (well colored blond, god knows what my natural color is — haven’t seen that in years, but I’m sure it is not pretty)……..I am interested in this new system — I wasn’t aware of it — I have never really been all that pleased with the Brownie pink but it was better than any other color I could find.

By MK P on 04/29/2009 10:46 am

e-mail alert

The same thing goes for me, DeB. But, I wear Coral Pinks and Corals with great success. The Blue pinks make me look like I have Cirrhosis….

By Diana T on 05/04/2009 12:38 pm

e-mail alert

Wear higher heels? Did Chandra even watch the YouTube clip? Susan was wearing what were easily 3-in heels (and walking very confidently in them, I might add).

By Emily W. on 04/28/2009 5:03 pm

e-mail alert

I was thinking the same thing, Emily. And, anyway, I hate really high heels. High heels are the modern equivalent of foot-binding! Not to mention, bad for your back. And feet. And knees.

By Rita@ Goldivas on 04/29/2009 8:01 pm

e-mail alert

And yet, look how successful she is looking 67 when she’s actually 47. So guess what - being yourself does not hurt your chances of fulfillig your dreams. Focus on your own looks, if you must -there is certainly no harm in making yourself as pretty as you can, if that is important to you. But what say as a group we women stop tearing each other down and inspecting one antoher and always making suggestions for improvements? Women are not an ongoing project. We are fine as we are - just like men. I don’t imagine Paul Potts, the mobile phone sales man who won Britain’s Got Talent last year, got much in the way of advice about how not to look so homely. People were fine with a homely guy being good at something. Maybe everyone can try doing the same for Susan Boyle - being happy for her, instead of helpfully pointing out how much more attractive she’d be if only she’d do x and y.

By sandra miller on 04/28/2009 8:28 pm

e-mail alert

It is time we value talent over superficial "style". The MTV generation has moved us back in seeking the real talents. We like looking at the covers of books more than reading them today. I listened to two young girls in an airport saying how they don’t know what is going on and don’t read anything until they hear everyone talking about a topic. Geeeesssshhh! They are our future? Heaven help us.

By Kay Sara on 04/29/2009 8:34 am

e-mail alert

I have to say that I TOTALLY DISAGREE with the "color your hair a little lighter" tip. I have said for years that every time I see a woman in her forties or fifties whose lightened her hair I think it ages her. If you’re a woman born with dark hair keeping it dark takes years off in my opinion.

By Chrome Toe on 04/29/2009 9:23 am

e-mail alert

Good point!

By Rita@ Goldivas on 04/29/2009 8:03 pm

e-mail alert

Wear "shape wear?" Isn’t that what my mom called a girdle? Sorry, Can’t buy into that advice. If you want to look slimmer, make sure you understand proportion and color when buying clothes, stand up straight and exercise your way to a better figure.

By Barbara on 04/29/2009 9:50 am